Alvaro Marinho and Genny Tulloch Win Carlos Aguilar Match Race

December 09, 2010 @ 00:51:03 Foto ISAF

The ability to recover and learn from mistakes made early in the regatta paid off in a Women's Division win for the USA's Genny Tulloch, while it was a crack crew that could read the tricky wind shifts that led Portugal's Alvaro Marinho/Seth Sailing Team to champion the Open Division at the Carlos Aguilar Match Race.

The Carlos Aguilar Match RAce (CAMR), presented by Ulysse Nardin/Trident Jewels & Time is an ISAF Grade 2 event for both the women's and open divisions.

Both divisions started this final day of racing by completing the Semi-Finals, then moving right into the Finals.

In the Women's Division, Great Britain's Lucy Macgregor handily beat the Netherland's Klaartje Zuiderbaan (3-0) in the Semi-Finals and the USA's Genny Tulloch bested the USA's Sally Barkow in extremely close matches (3-2) to give both MacGregor and Tulloch berths into the Finals.

In the Finals, both MacGregor and Tulloch sparred so closely that after two races the score was tied with each team winning one race. The decider came in the third race when Tulloch took the start and handed MacGregor a penalty at the same time. MacGregor fought back and caught a puff the USA team missed to overtake them at the first windward mark. Tulloch caught up and passed MacGregor on the second upwind run and stretched her team's lead over the Brits to nearly eight boat lengths by the finish.

In the Open Division, Semi-Final action saw the U.S. Virgin Islands' Peter Holmberg beat the USA's Dave Perry (3-1) and Portugal's Álvaro Marinho/Seth Sailing Team triumph over the USVI's Taylor Canfield (3-1), thus launching both Holmberg and Marinho into the Finals.

Holmberg, Open Division defending champion, didn't let 14th-ranked Marinho off easy and the first two finals races, like the women, ended at an even score with each team winning one race. In the final race, Marinho pulled ahead of Holmberg at the start and held his lead, albeit sometimes a very slim one over Holmberg and his ace crew, right to the end with the Virgin Islander's nipping at the Portuguese team's heels the whole way. The win for Marinho secures them a place at the 2011 Match Cup Sweden.

"This win is huge for us," says Marinho. "Not only was it great to win the event, but to beat someone as good as Peter Holmberg was incredible. The local guys were very tough. My crew did a great job and I think our success came in calling the shifts right."